Ex-FTX, Alameda execs Ellison, Wang get slap-on-the-wrist trading bans after crypto collapse
Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang – who worked with disgraced FTX crypto crook Sam Bankman-Fried – avoided financial penalties in a slap-on-the-wrist settlement with US regulators that was revealed Wednesday. Ellison, 31, the nerdy on-again, off-again ex-girlfriend of Bankman-Fried who ran his Alameda hedge fund before testifying against him, will be banned from trading for five years and from registering with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for 10 years, the agency said.Wang, 33, FTX’s co-founder and chief technology officer, will be banned from trading for five years and from registering with the regulator for eight years, according to the agency’s press release.The CFTC said it did not seek financial penalties or a return of ill-gotten profits from Ellison or Wang because of their extensive cooperation with authorities.Both had testified as prosecution witnesses against Bankman-Fried after the multibillion-dollar collapse of FTX and Alameda.“Today’s resolution further underscores the high value this division places on robust cooperation,” CFTC Enforcement Director David Miller said in a statement.“Ellison and Wang were senior executives who committed fraud at Alameda and FTX for which they were found liable.
Their sanctions, however, reflect their material assistance in the Commission’s FTX-related investigations.” The court-approved settlement followed FTX’s spectacular collapse in 2022, after the firm filed for bankruptcy and exposed an $8 billion scheme in which Bankman-Fried and his cronies stole customer funds from the crypto exchange to cover up losses at Alameda Research.Bankman-Fried, 34, is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence – a steep fall from grace for a man once seen as a rising star of the crypto industry.In June, he lost his bid to overturn his 2023 fraud conviction, which found him guilty on all seven felony charges.Ellison – who penned explicit, since-deleted blog posts about polyamory, sexual fantasies...